All About Deacon

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The tiny baby we held at the hospital 5 years ago started Kindergarten yesterday, and he had to be the cutest little guy in elementary (I am SO not biased...)!Here he is with his Mario backpack:We used my new silhouette to put his name on it in vinyl:

He posed a couple more times at the house for good measure:

His favorite new smirk to make:

I am all about sucking up to the teachers; a few extra brownie points never hurts at the start of the year!

We got the jars at Dollar Tree, baked some chocolate chip cookies, and downloaded the printable from here. It says "With you as my teacher, I'll be one smart cookie!" Carson has 2 teachers, one will teach in English half of his day, the other in only Spanish. His classmates are also a mixture of English/Spanish speaking children. By 5th grade he should be fluent in both languages. This is the only kindergarten class in our district to offer the Dual Language Program, and we are so thrilled he was accepted!

Brian met us from work with breakfast from McDonalds!

Carson was elated to finally be a "big kid" and wasn't the least bit nervous or scared. I did pretty well too, and only teared up twice the entire morning, which stopped after Brian and Carson started laughing at me!

We also saw my friend Jenny's daughters, Avery and Aubrey.

When I picked Carson up he said he had a great day!! He said his teacher was very nice and he didn't get any conduct marks. He played on the playground, cut, colored, glued, and his teacher read the class a couple of books. His very first school lunch consisted of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, oranges, and chocolate milk. (I think eating lunch in the cafeteria was his favorite part of the day) He also made a couple of friends, but hasn't learned their names, saying he needs "about 14 days to remember."

Friday, August 19, 2011

Now that we are back to work/school, it is time to get back into nightly routines, dinner being one of those! This weeks finds are easy, one-dish dinner ideas! I haven't tried these yet, so I can't vouch for them, but they look delish!

Friday, August 12, 2011

I received a Silhouette SD for my birthday this year from Brian and the boys. I have been wanting one for a couple of years and finally found a cheap enough deal on overstock.com to justify getting it. A Silhouette is basically a printer, but instead of using ink, it has a razor to cut images. You can feed a bunch of different materials into the machine creating all kinds of cool crafts and personalized items, like vinyl, cardstock, fabric, and even temporary tattoo paper. I have found so many fabulous ways to use my silhouette on pinterest, here are a couple of my favorites (that I am not planning to give as gifts in the near future):

Monogrammed Cooler - The font may be a little too fancy for our family, but I love the idea of adding a little bling and making an ice chest more personalized without whipping out the sharpie

Fall Wreath - While it would take forever to hand cut each individual leaf, the silhouette could spit those puppies out in a couple of seconds

Mobile - May need to find a pregnant friend to make this for!

Fabric Artwork - They hand drew and cut the birds and leaves; I am not an artist, so I would use the fabric interfacing feature cut and modgepodge

Mailbox Decor - We have neighborhood mailboxes, so I couldn't make this for us, but how gorgeous!

Pinwheel - the silhouette also cuts foldables for 3-dimensional projects!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Do you watch Dora? You know the theme song "Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer..."? We have changed the words to that song and replaced the name with Deacon. Why, you might ask?

Yes, this is my child INSIDE the toilet!

And of course, I did like any good mother would do: told Carson to watch him while I ran to grab my camera! :) What makes it even more adorable is that his shirt goes with the theme perfectly! Our little Potty Pirate! lol

We have learned to keep the bathroom door closed because when we don't we are reminded of Deacon's favorite playground!

March 29th was probably the most difficult for Brian and I when dealing with the overwhelming feeling of having no control in Deacon's future. It was our rock bottom. It is in that time when you get to a place that you throw your hands in the air and give up doing things on your own. We finally realized that we could do all we could as Deacon's parents, but the most important thing was to give our struggles and desperation to God.

That day this verse became my mantra:"Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."Mark 11:22-24

Around this time my Aunt Bonnie mailed us this book, after the family visited her church:

They wrote about their healthy daughter becoming ill and needing to have her heart removed. She was hooked up to a machine that was outside of her body and worked as a temporary heart while they waited in an out of state hospital for months for a transplant. The family was split apart, had days with poor prognosis, but continued to stay strong in their faith.

I started reading this book on April 4th, after my students finished their state testing. On April 4th Deacon stopped having seizures and we haven't seen one since. It has been 4 months!

Coincidence?? Deacon had been on the same prescription for a couple of months and had no changes in it. This was also less than a week since our "rock bottom." Believe what you will, I have no doubt this was God.

Need more proof of the miracles we have experienced:

Diagnosis: SeizuresFebruary 17th - We were told Deacon had Infantile Spasms and a 90% chance of being mentally retarded, and high mortality rate.

March 29th - Doctors told us they were wrong after 23 hour EEG, Deacon did not have Infantile Spasms, instead Myoclonic Seizures.Myoclonic seizures had about the same prognosis, the goal being to reduce number of seizures, but complete seizure control would be difficult.

June 24th- Vision Specialist can hardly believe Deacon is the same kid! Told us all fixing, following, and visual attention had significantly improved!

Diagnosis: Developmental DelaysFebruary 1st- Deacon qualifies for ECI services for developmental delay. At about 12 months of age, he was at the development of about a 6 month old and had regressed in some areas and platued in others.He could not feed himself, had no interaction with toys or people, language had completely disappeared.
July 20th - Deacon's re-evaluation. In six months, Deacon has had 6 months of progress! He is now developmentally at at about 12 months is drinking from a sippy cup and feeding himself, plays with toys and people, and is making sounds again!

July 12th - I haven't even shared this with y'all: DOCTOR RETRACTED AUTISM DIAGNOSIS!!! He said Deacon was much too affectionate and interactive for him to believe that Deacon had autism like previously believed.

So let me remind you of God's promise:

"God will bless you, if you don't give up when your faith is being tested. He will reward you with a glorious life, just as he rewards everyone who loves him."

Saturday, August 6, 2011

We got our images! Here are the ones you haven't seen of our guys together. (I am using the individual ones to write their half year update soon!)

This one is my favorite b/c it is just so them!

I cannot wait until I have pictures to hang on my wall!!

Carey Anne is having an amazing special this month that I am completely jealous of: a complimentary 8x10 Wild Sorbet Frame to every client booking their session this month! These are just a couple of the gorgeous designs:

Friday, August 5, 2011

All of these pinterest finds fall into the ridiculous category of smart ideas that leave you wondering how you didn't come up with something so simple yourself. As always, websites can be found by clicking the underlined link.

Sunblocker - unhook the last ring from your curtain rod and hang it on the bracket. We did this in Deacon's room and you wouldn't believe how much darker it is a naptime!

Free Bag Clips - Cut off the ends of those cheap pant coathangers that you usually throw away

Lost Camera - On the first image for your new card take a picture of your contact information so that camera can be returned. This guy had a fun way of passing his message along, click the link to see the full image

Cupcake Lids - Keep flies out of drinks at picnics, even cuter if you can match the party theme

Baby Food Jar - When painting a room pour some excess paint into baby food jar for quick, easy touch-ups. Website has lots of other great ideas.

Power Outage - Going out of town? What if the power goes out? How will you know if the food refreezes before your return? This is a genius idea! Freeze a jar of water on its side. Stand it back up. If the power goes out, the water will melt and freeze to the bottom of the jar.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

We have been wanting to get the boys photos taken for a while, but didn't want the posed studio look. Because Deacon is hard to capture on camera I wanted to find a photographer who is really patient and could capture our guys being themselves. After mentioning this delimna with Deacon's therapists they recommended a photographer that has worked with some of their other kiddos and gotten great results.I am beside myself on how gorgeous the pictures look and have already decided that our house is basically going to become a shrine to our children because there is no possible way I can choose only one or two to hang.

Carey Anne gave such a sweet write up about our family and posted some of her favorite images which can be checked out at careyannephotography.com. I can't wait to share the other fabulous photos she snapped!!

Holidays are just around the corner and photos always make the best gifts, so those of you who live around Houston need to get on the ball to book a shoot with her! (Her senior photos are fabulous too!)